STRIKERS IN GAOL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19441, 29 October 1925, Page 8

STRIKERS IN GAOL

250 NOW AT MOUNT EDEN MAKESHIFT ACCOMMODATION CHAPEL AND SCHOOLROOM. Nearly 250 seamen strikers arc‘aft commodated at Mount Eden gaol, under makeshift but not uncomfortable conditions. No house of detention offer.home comforts 1o those who offeni against the laws of the land. In spite of the sudden congestion, the gaol authorities seem to have been equal to the emergency. The majority of the seamen have been accommodated in the gaol chapel and the schoolroom. They enjoy a leisure which may soon pall. None of them is working. Their daily routine is adjusted so that they will not come into contact with the regular prisoners when they arc summoned into the building at mealtimes. Between meals most of the seamen gather in the courtyard. They play no games, but are permitted to read litera-

ture from the gaol’s extensive library. Smoking is pefmitted. At five o’clock in the evening the seamen have to come indoors. After dining they may read until nine o ’clock.

The kitchen staff has been kept work ing up to full capacity to feed the 250 men whose appetites have apparently not suffered from inactivity. The food is good. It is the regular prison ration, and no inmate, of Mount. Eden gaol who follows a policy of good conduct has yet found his rations unpalatable or inadequate. The first seamen sentenced, the batch of eight from the Benecia, have been discharged. The sentences of a large number expire on November 6.